Developing a selective and sensitive Fluoride sensing scheme by fluorimetric and chemometric optimisations using highly fluorescent boron-doped Carbon dots with a 'turn off-on' mechanism.

Fluoride detection in water is a critical issue that has received extensive attention recently. Researchers have focused on developing practical and reliable methods for detecting Fluoride in water, and fluorescent carbon dots have emerged as a promising solution. These dots are easy to synthesise, highly fluorescent and stable, making them an ideal choice for this application.

Enhanced moisture sensing properties of a nanostructured ZnO coated capacitive sensor.

This work reports the enhancement in sensitivity of a simple and low-cost capacitive moisture sensor using a thin film of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles on electrodes. The ZnO nanoparticles are systematically characterized using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, BET surface area analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and UV-visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The average crystallite size of the ZnO nanoparticles is ∼16 nm with a surface roughness of ∼3 nm.

Multi-criteria evaluation of hydro-geological and anthropogenic parameters for the groundwater vulnerability assessment.

Groundwater contamination assessment is a challenging task due to inherent complex dynamisms associated with the groundwater. DRASTIC is a very widely used rapid regional tool for the assessment of vulnerability of groundwater to contamination. DRASTIC has many lacunas in the form of subjectivities associated with weights and ratings of its hydro-geological parameters, and, therefore, the accuracy of the DRASTIC-based vulnerability map is questioned.

A review on various electrochemical techniques for heavy metal ions detection with different sensing platforms.

Heavy metal ions are non-biodegradable and contaminate most of the natural resources occurring in the environment including water. Some of the heavy metals including Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Arsenic (As), Chromium (Cr) and Cadmium (Cd) are considered to be highly toxic and hazardous to human health even at trace levels. This leads to the requirement of fast, accurate and reliable techniques for the detection of heavy metal ions.

Selective electrochemical sensing for arsenite using rGO/FeO nanocomposites.

Herein, we report rGO/FeO nanocomposites (NCs) free from noble metals, synthesized by facile one step chemical reduction method, for electrochemical detection of arsenite in water by square wave anodic stripping Voltammetry (SWASV). The synthesized NCs were characterized for its optical, morphological and structural properties. The NCs modified glassy carbon (GCE), NCs/GCE, electrodes showed a higher sensitivity (0.

Development of a photometric system for continuous flow analysis.

Most chemical analyses carried out in a clinical laboratory are colorimetric. An improved photometric system is described where a tungsten lamp is the light source, a photo-diode is the detector and a microcontroller 8051 is used for processing and displaying absorbances. The performance characteristics of the instrument are reported.

Protective effect of Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) against leprosy: a population-based case-control study in Nagpur, India.

A population-based pair-matched case-control study was carried out in an urban community, Nagpur, India, to estimate the effectiveness of BCG vaccination in the prevention of leprosy. The study included 212 cases of leprosy (diagnosed by WHO criteria), below the age of 35 years, detected during a leprosy survey conducted by the Government of Maharashtra over a population of 20,03,325. Each case was pair-matched with one neighbourhood control for age, sex and socioeconomic status.